Juana Garcia says God saved her in a Texas holding cell

Sunday

NEW BEDFORD — Juana Garcia’s husband insisted she remain home on March 6, 2007. Their 2-year-old son had become ill the night before and only his mother knew how to administer his inhaler.

But Garcia said she had to report to work that Tuesday morning at Michael Bianco Inc.

“The main boss said if you don’t show up, you don't’ have a job,” Garcia said. “So I told (my husband) I have to go.”

Still, Garcia planned to leave work during her break to take her son to the doctors. Immigration and Customs agents burst through the doors and seized 361 illegal immigrants before Garcia could leave.

She was taken to Fort Devens in Ayer before being transported to Texas. At each stop, from New Bedford to Ayer to Texas, she said she notified ICE that she was a mother of a sick child. They asked for an address to find the child, but fear that her son would be detained too — despite being born in the U.S. — crippled her from telling them.

“I cried and cried and cried and I didn’t give them the address,” Garcia said. “They took me to Texas, they said if you don’t tell us, then you're definitely going back to your country.”

A document written in English awaited Garcia in Texas. She said ICE agents demanded she sign the document. She blindly brought the pen to the paper to volunteer for deportation when someone in the room spoke up.

In Spanish, he asked if she had any children, then advised her not to sign it. She had 10 days to find an attorney.

“When I heard that, I didn't’ sign it,” Garcia said. “I insisted that they give it to me in Spanish so I would be able to read it. They brought it to me and when I read it I didn’t sign anything.”

During an interview with The Standard-Times inside her New Bedford home, Garcia swears the man appeared out of nowhere. And that day he acted as her guardian angel.

“I think God sent me a good person,” Garcia said. “It was without reason someone appeared.”

Nine days later, Garcia said agents woke her up at 1 a.m.

“Every day they would take three or four people out to deport,” she said. “I thought they were taking me for deportation.”

Instead, she said they brought another piece of paper and placed it in front of her. Initially, it appeared in English, but a Spanish version followed after she insisted.

Garcia said she learned that her son was sick and that a doctor insisted she return home after she wrote a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick.

“The doctor said the mother has to be here because the child could die at any minute,” Garcia said.

Garcia signed the document, which secured her return home, she said. Still, even as she and three others entered the plane, they feared they would be returning to Guatemala, she said. When they landed in Boston six hours later, she thought another holding cell awaited her when they placed handcuffs on her.

It wasn’t until she met with a lawyer at Greater Boston Legal Services that Garcia said she realized she was home. She was awarded permanent residency. Her husband was given permanent residency in 2011. Their son, Jason, is now healthy.